- Section 1 – Salary Discussion: Look up the job you are interested in having in the future. Make sure you notice the salaries and whether they differ by state.
- Section 2- Graduate School or Marketability- If this position requires a graduate degree, look up the cost of different graduate programs to determine what is the highest and lowest cost of this graduate degree. Discuss the cost and the time it will take to complete a graduate degree if this career/job requires it. Include whether you are willing to take the economic risk of going to graduate school? If it does not require a graduate degree, discussed in this section how they can improve their marketability while they’re earning their bachelor’s degree? For example, internships, volunteering, etc. How can they obtain these opportunities while at FIU?
- Section 3- Resume: You will then prepare or update a resume for job applications. Please use the following resume guide from FIU’s Career & Talent Development to help you develop or update your resume:
• https://spark.adobe.com/page/NshJo1ncwAH70/: Choose the appropriate resume to reflect your career goals.
• https://linkedinlearning.fiu.edu: Search for ‘resume’ in the search bar.
• Your resume should not exceed one page. If the job you’re looking for requires a graduate degree, your resume should then reflect that (you will pretend that you have a graduate degree—the goal here is to give you the opportunity to become informed about the degree you would need for this position). - Research your Parallel Plan: Now, imagine if your ideal career ceases to exist. Perhaps the robots can do it now, or you are unable to get the degree needed to be eligible for that job, or maybe it becomes obsolete for some other reason. You will need to create a parallel or alternate plan. To do so, you will first identify your career-related interests, abilities, values, and goals.
Your parallel plan should be a different career than the original career goal you had in mind. If your plan is to go into a healthcare profession, your parallel plan should be a career goal outside of the healthcare field. For example, if your career goal is to become a doctor then your parallel plan can be to become a school counselor for the K-12 school system. This way you are exploring and learning about diverse career options that can be a great fit for you.
Think about the following questions (this is brain storming part- you do not need to include this in the paper):
• Why am I interested in pursuing (insert your top choice major here)?
• What do I like most about my current major of interest?
• What classes have I performed well in and what classes have I disliked or struggled with the most?
• What specific careers interest me and why?
• What types of work environments do I prefer?
• What companies would I love to work for and what is my dream job?
• Explore different Majors within your Academic Unit, College, School, etc.
• Look up job opportunities that can be done with the same degree you are earning now. Take note of the fact that the alternate job you’re interested in requires a different degree and consider if you’d be willing to go back to school for another degree.
• Pay attention to the job salaries for these alternate jobs/careers. - Section 4: Parallel Plan – Create your parallel plan. When developing a parallel plan, answer the following questions in your plan: (REQUIRED)
• Are there any common courses between my current major of interest and my alternative major choice?
• What courses differ between these majors?
• Are there any application requirements or admission standards that I should know about? - Once you have completed all of the above steps, you will prepare document you will be submitting. The document must have the following four sections:
• Current job Salary Discussion
• Graduate School or Marketability
• A one-page resume ready for applying to the job you are interested in pursuing currently.
• Discuss your parallel plan with the alternate job(s) you might pursue instead. Specifically, identify and mention what that job/career would be and discuss why you chose it. You must answer the questions included in step 5 above, and feel free to include other questions you considered in the steps above while developing your parallel plan. Make sure you include what the salaries are and if they differ by city, state or region. Discuss whether you would or would not be willing to go back to school to get the degree or courses required for the alternate job (or if you can complete these requirements currently while earning your current degree). Finally, discuss how job application and resume writing might be different (if at all) with this alternate job versus the current job you are planning on pursuing.
Sample Solution
